1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to liquid reservoir systems that provide fluids/liquid to a mechanical or electric pump.
2. Description of Related Art
Many existing fuel delivery reservoir systems rely on a jet pump to sweep fuel from the fuel tank to fill the reservoir by virtue of the siphon effect. This reservoir fuel is then used to supply the fuel pump. The jet pump uses the pressurized discharge fuel from the electrical fuel pump and/or the discharge of the fuel pressure regulator. During some driving conditions, such as centripetal/centrifugal and/or other positive or negative gravitational “G” forces caused by turns rapid acceleration/deceleration, rapid elevation change and/or angular orientation change events can move fuel away from the jet jump, preventing the jet pump from pumping more fuel into the fuel reservoir. When the limited supply of fuel in the reservoir is depleted, the fuel pump cannot pump fuel to the engine, and the engine may stall from lack of fuel, even though there is fuel in the fuel tank.
Some other existing fuel delivery reservoir systems try to remedy the loss of fuel being provided to the fuel reservoir by using baffles to form a wall around the fuel pump in an attempt to hold a portion of the fuel near the pump inlet. However, this only slows the movement of fuel away from the pump inlet by virtue of one-way flaps or other means to capture fuel. This approach does not use a syphon jet so it is limited to the fuel level in the tank, and cannot keep the available fuel at a level above the pump inlet indefinitely. This method relies on some alternate motion of the vehicle to “slosh” the fuel back through the baffled openings into the fuel reservoir. Since the baffle flaps seal by their own weight, their effectiveness is consistently poor.